When Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum started for Carthage to face what they knew would be an imminent martyrdom, Hyrum read these words of comfort to the heart of his brother. Thou hast been faithful, wherefore thou shalt be made strong even under the sitting down in the place with which I have prepared in the mansions of my father. A few short verses from the 12th chapter of Ether in the Book of Mormon.

Before closing the book, Hyrum turned down the corner of the page from which he had read, marking it as part of the everlasting testimony for which these two brothers were about to die. I hold in my hand that book, the very copy from which Hyrum read, the same corner of the page turned down still visible.

Later when actually incarcerated in the jail, Joseph the prophet bore a powerful testimony of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Shortly thereafter, pistol and ball would take the lives of these two testators. In this their greatest and last hour of need, I ask you would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for each eternal salvation on a book, and by implication a church and a ministry they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth?

Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be houseless, homeless, and friendless, and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor. Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which if not the very word of God would brand them as impostors and charlatans until the end of time.

They would not do that. They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness one of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is true, and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the last days. Brothers and sisters, God always provides safety for the soul, and with the Book of Mormon he has again done that in our time.

Remember this declaration by Jesus himself. Whoso treasureth up my word shall not be deceived, and in the last days, neither your heart nor your faith will fail you. Of this I earnestly testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.